


A few Decades

by Sevka (TheFaultInOurHeads)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Inspired by..., Original Fiction, Sarcasm, Vampires, Vignette, Writing Exercise, snapshot, vaguely Harry Potter - inspired setting, vaguely Mercy Thompson - inspired setting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-06
Updated: 2015-07-06
Packaged: 2018-04-07 23:49:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4282656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFaultInOurHeads/pseuds/Sevka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>Come midnight, your fate might be sealed, your pathetic excuse for a life over and done with. You know you <strong>really</strong> should have seen this coming, bucko.</em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	A few Decades

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little vignette I wrote for a creative writing class. It's a set up for a longer story, which I may or may not write at some point. Enjoy!

He was uneasy. Well, uneasier than usual, that is. Not that he would have admitted it to anyone, but he was concerned about his boss’s decision regarding his employment. He had, after all, completely botched up that last assignment.  


If he blew this, he knew it would be over for him. Out of a job, without his employer’s protection, he would be hunted down and killed by his own people. There was no clan for him to return to, and as far as the other vampires were concerned, he had strayed too far from the right path. They wouldn’t have him endanger their already rapidly declining population even more.  


Trying to push those thoughts as far away as he could, he busied himself by pacing up and down his sparsely decorated dungeon office. Every footstep echoed off the stone walls, and his heightened senses made them ring uncomfortably loud in his ears. The grandfather clock in the far corner of the room seemed more imposing with every passing minute. It felt like time had slowed down just to taunt him. _Come midnight, your fate might be sealed, your pathetic excuse for a life over and done with. The suspense is killing me, no pun intended, so here, let me drag it out for you. You know you **really** should have seen this coming, bucko._  


One minute before midnight, he forced himself to stop his pacing. He approached the big, wooden desk in the middle of the room with deliberation and, after a split second of hesitation, sat down in his office chair. The smooth leather felt cool to his touch, but then again, so did most things. It was one of the downsides to being a vampire. On a whim, he lit a couple of candles on the small side table. They were the only light source in the large, windowless room now casting flickering shadows on the stone walls.  


It wasn’t that he needed them to see in the dark, practically being gifted with night vision. But in moments like these, their smell and unsteady movement in the draft of the dungeon did wonders for his nerves. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, inhaling the smoky scent, filling his lungs with air they didn’t need. He’d never quite been able to break that particular habit.  


His alertness came back full force at the tinny sound of his grandfather clock chiming twelve times. On the very last chime, the top right drawer of his desk began to emit an eerie glow. Suddenly, the flicker of the candles seemed menacing rather than comforting, but he was frozen in place not daring to take his attention off the drawer to blow out the flames. Another minute passed until the glow slowly subsided.  


This was it. The moment that might possibly determine the rest of a potentially very short existence. He braced himself and reached for the handle. Opening the drawer, he immediately caught sight of the red envelope he had expected to see, knowing full well that it hadn’t been there two minutes ago. As he picked it up, he noticed that his hand was shaking slightly. Just terrific. His body betraying him was exactly what he needed on top of everything. A flare of anger shot through him, both at his employer for holding this kind of power over him, and at himself for getting into this mess in the first place. He dropped the envelope onto the desk as if it had burned him. He hated being controlled, even just by his own fears, and yet he had willingly submitted to someone who might just have signed his death sentence. There was a lesson here, he knew. Unfortunately, it came a few decades too late.  


Unable to suppress another tremble, he reached for the letter opener.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!


End file.
